When we talk about ‘designing interactions’, we are usually referring to the human - technology interaction or the technology - technology interaction. I would suggest that the human - human interaction is of greater importance and that we look at technology as a facilitator not a living entity itself. In creating an environment, the quality of the people is a huge driver for whether or not we want to be present. Often, interpersonal relating is left as training for C Suite managers when people interact with customers everyday. Designing interactions between people is not about ‘forcing’ communication but creating an environment where everyone’s authentic self can shine; where we bring in high energy people; and where people are coached for knowledge and interpersonal relating. Environments where love, kindness, empathy are present — environments where it is easy to be loving, kind and empathetic. When we bring people that energy, is a setting of quality, then we know we have brought them true beauty.

At its core, looking after the environment is much more essential than sustainability or caring for mother Earth. Respecting your environment means asking yourself, how do my actions impact those I share this ‘space’, ‘object’ or facility with? That starts with where you are today — this could be your home, your office or your gym. The action could be as small as putting a towel on a wet floor to prevent others from slipping, it could mean putting someone else’s rubbish in the bin so that someone else doesn’t have to do it (even if its not ‘your job’), it could mean making a request for a particular facility on behalf of your community so that everyone’s experience is a lot more pleasant. That is where beauty begins and ends — in unconditional kindness and thoughtfulness for the experience of others. We can all contribute. It is not exclusive to one particular area. And when we do, with this attitude, we find that our spaces are indeed a lot more beautiful and more full of love. When we have this attitude, it is only natural that we will ask the same questions in our work — how does my work contribute to the quality of the experience of someone else’s life? What materials should I choose that is most considerate to the process and product? When we shift our focus from fear to love, we move from self to other. When we move from self to other, everyone benefits. This is at the core of creating and maintaining beauty.

Our definitions and the meanings we attribute to words is what gives them cultural movement. The idea that beauty is shallow, superficial and can be bought is the driver behind a lot of pain and insecurity in culture. It is also an idea behind many great businesses. Who gave it that meaning? Humans did. The idea that beauty is internal, found through acts of love, kindness and generosity — also humans. What we focus on expands. What we focus on collectively is what lives on, often for generations as a collective belief, either leading more towards fear or more towards love.

True beauty at its core is about love. Nothing more. Nothing less. Beauty is about peace, its about order, its about healing, its about balance. Nature is beautiful. Kindness is beautiful. When there is beauty, there is often peace, cleanliness, a space that is neither too noisy or too quiet; it is safe, secure, welcoming; beauty is warm, it has open arms; beauty is inclusive not exclusive; beauty is intelligent without being arrogant; beauty is in sharing not in hoarding

The idea of beauty is often reserved for specific sectors, particularly the luxury goods. And though beauty has often been used by these business, it is not owned by them. Beauty has a much space in a education as it does in luxury cars. Beauty is healing. A hospital that has cleanliness, beauty and order is a more nourishing environment.

Perhaps we can move to a more open, universal presence of beauty. Perhaps a school that has beautiful textbooks that are appealing to the eye, will see more success with their students. Perhaps a hospital with beautiful mural in each room will add some joy to the lives of their patients. And perhaps we can learn to share whatever is beautiful in our lives, perhaps then beauty can thrive in health in our society.

This table was designed with the LVMH owned Spanish Luxury fashion house, Loewe in mind. We wanted to create a piece which integrated into their retail spaces. The intention was to use resources that are typically discarded from the waste coffee granules, the reclaimed gold with bio-resin to make something that is suitable piece for a luxury brand experience, whilst being a symbol of social development. Further details of the project can be found here.

Chocolate dreams. In this project we are attempting to produce a beautiful piece of furniture made from waste coffee granules. The desire is that the we have a perfectly smooth finish, much like that of chocolate. The process so far has involved an unexpected accident when leaving the bio-resin to cure outside in the sunlight which resulted in a bumpy, granular texture. After curing the bio-resin mixture in complete darkness at approximately 30 degrees centigrade, we saw a smooth final product result that can be polished to give us a warm, smooth finish. In this process I have been thinking a lot about interactivity and the way that furniture can serve as a better connector between people around the table and how furniture serves as mediator of human interaction.

Future School was created out of the intention of re- writing the narrative around education. The vision is to create a space that starts from scratch, generating a fully integrated and adaptable learning experience that is beautiful and socially relevant. Throughout this project I have treated the school as if it was a 'hospitality space', translating the experience you would have at a technologically advanced five star hotel or Michelin- starred restaurants. This reconsideration permeates everything from the material features of the environment to designing the interactions of the school staff with their students. Beyond being aesthetically pleasing, material selection began with the question of 'what waste is available that we can reuse, so that we can make a space that leads young people to think of social responsibility from the start?' The features of the school are also determined by this notion of thinking beyond examination and into connecting with the earth and its people. In our 'conversational design' we have also included ways for which teachers are reviewed by their students. We are all too familiar with people who are masters of their subject but not of communicating it. The school eatery serves as an educational experience for young people to learn about nutrition and the impact their meals has on the planet. We are of the belief that if you start with the right mindset early in life, then we have a greater chance of constructing that a future that is nourishing for both the individual and the whole.

The first e-mail entered substantial use in the 1960's and since then has been eroding our use of paper based communication. Though email has allowed us to communicate much faster, it has reduced our inclination towards personalisation, beauty and charm. It has also reduced our patience for something that is thoughtful and well crafted.

I personally get a deep pleasure from personalisation, communicating in a way that is not about quantity or 'doing something to get it done' but creating a meaningful connection with the other party, to celebrate what is unique to that individual or team whilst infusing the experience of communicating with creativity, colour and fun. And though I will not abandon the e-mail, I endeavour to fill all Laboratory communication with as much art and heart as possible.

The story of chocolate begins in 1900 BC in Mesoamerica. The cacao seeds were believed to be a gift from Quetzalcoatl, the God of wisdom. Cacao's power lay in the fact that it was an aphrodisiac and was thought to provide strength. The story of chocolate evolves through its discovery by Christopher Columbus in his 1502 mission to the America's and its introduction to the Spanish Court by the Spanish frairs. As chocolate began to capture the hearts of the European's, it was subject to mass production processes in advent of the Industrial Revolution. The love of chocolate has inspired many to become chocolate artists or chocolatiers, brilliant individuals who have tasked themselves with the joy of presenting and remaking this powerful elixir from the cocoa plant into ever more multi-sensory experiences. From Pierre Marcolini to Sadaharu Aoki, these pieces of art work delight us in both simple and complex ways.

In the evolution of the project 'Waste is a Misconception', I was inspired by the multi-sensory nature of chocolate. Chocolate and fine patisserie have a series of desirable characteristics. These mini edible sculptures are biodegradable, beautiful and awaken multi-sensory pleasure in those that delight in them. If you are attentive enough, the noise of breaking through one and the slight challenge that you encounter in that process is highly satisfactory within itself. Any surprise flavouring is but a pleasing addition.

In creating with bio-resin, a resin that had been made from waste plant matter and waste coffee granules from Nespresso pods, it is ever more important to bring out the deliciousness and desirability. The 'sustainable cause' has often suffered from a lack of pleasure consideration and until we can create items that bring as much gorgeousness into our lives as some of their more harmful cousins, it will be a challenge to convince the public that environmental mindfulness is indeed attractive. As I move forwards with this project, I am looking to cultivating the same sensory pleasures inherent in a piece of edible artwork.

Empathy with materials involves treating them as if they are human — looking at a material with wonder, studying its behaviour, its make up, its strengths, its weaknesses and how can we shape, colour and place it in conditions in which it will flourish. This is especially true of materials that have come from the Earth, materials that have biological processes just like humans, for whether we wish to accept it or not, our interdependency on the natural world is as great as our interdependency on one another.

We work across disciplines because we see design work as a vehicle to transform lives. We are interested not in one segment of life but in the experience of life which is complex, multi-sensory and multi- object. We are interested not in isolated occurrences but multi- point interactions. Our design work is simply a vehicle through which we hope to improve life, bit by bit, whether it be helping people to think more critically, to try out a new perspective, become more aware, experience more joy or connect more deeply. We also love the thrill of making unusual connections, keeping our thinking challenged and fresh, but also allowing us to serve in a more impactful way.

Our work is solely the process of mastering bringing ideas to life, even if the exact manifestation of those ideas looks different. Our emphasis is on the process, dedicating ourselves to bringing our full spirit and attention to creating for our customers and clients.

We also feel that it is important to leverage our knowledge as we go along, which is why we work with young people to inspire them to create and to stimulate their thinking in a way that conventional education can fall short.

Colour Basketball, Mireia Ruiz // Does changing the colours of basketball transform the experience of the game?

If experience exists because of our sensory perception, then where does an object end and an experience begin? What characteristics makes an object an experience? What characteristics of a service make it an experience as opposed to a repeat convenience to which we are numb? How do we make sense of the experiences of others? How do we know what was significant to guests? Experiences are typically referred to in the technological sense (the ‘User Experience’) and in the design of an interior ‘the creation of interior experience’ and the position of colour and the artefacts within the space in such a way that is appeal to the psychology of the guest — making the space alluring, inviting and even able to induce particular emotions. When we build on that, how then do we create an experience that is meaningful and emotionally resonant? Can we create experiences that induce closer connection, love or a ‘coming back to ones self’?

I was recently reading Zen in the Art of Archery: Training the Body and the Mind to become one by Eugen Herrigel and it made me contemplate the idea that the design journey, the creative journey and business journey could also be a task of personal evolution and ideally a facilitator to evolve others. Is the creative journey a chisel for the human spirit? It made me inquire as to how others experience the act of creativity and whether or not context shifts ones personal experience. Where does the stress of attachment to an outcome come from? I postulate it is different for different people but perhaps the conditions for non- attached blissful work are perhaps the same? Even books that are perhaps less metaphysical in nature, books like the incredibly popular Flow by Professor Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi suggest conditions for happiness comes from an non attached immersion in an activity. What I enjoyed the most about Flow was the fact that the end of the book talks about purpose, that life can be given one and that it is helpful if that purpose is in flow with that of community, culture and environment. One of the lines of “... the Master's warning that we should not practice anything except self-detaching immersion,” is a condition talked about extensively in Csikszentmihalyi work. I’ll end this exploration with a beautifully expressed paragraph from Eugen Herrigel “...the preparations for working put him simultaneously in the right frame of mind for creating... that collectedness and presence of mind...the right frame of mind for the artist is only reached when the preparing and the creating, the technical and the artistic, the material and the spiritual, the project and the object, flow together without a break.” Can we create conditions for non attached immersion in the workplace? Can we create conditions for joy? And if we did, would that impact the work that we produce? I’m intrigued as to where this inquiry may lead…

Photograph and photographer unknown // It is time that we apply the beauty we use to construct interiors and clothing to social development. Let's make social development beautiful.

When we contemplate what the term beauty means today, the immediate images that come to mind are beautifully styled interiors, luxury candles and finely crafted fashion. When we think of the term social development or ecological preservation, we think of something that has been degraded, old, unsophisticated and underprivileged. To serve society seems almost altruistic. We see this altruism as the opposite of the excess that has been long associated with fine craftsmanship and high pricing. But does beauty and social development have to sit opposite one another? Can they not intersect, connect, learn from one another? Is not all thoughtful design work a social act? And by thoughtful, I mean work that considers not just materiality, but messaging and the context in which it sits and will sit into the future.

Plomp, Louise Zhang // What artful, fun and interesting combinations can we create when we look at creative practice as space without 'boxes'?

A friend wisely said to me that the answer we have to creative education today is “one of many possible answers” that could have rooted itself in our society. In times of great change and uncertainty, do the things that we perceive to be ‘right’ hold as much integrity as they used to? Perhaps loosening the attachment to established methodology in achieving a particular goal or vision can free us of the tension created between what we instinctively feel we would like to do and was present times suggest would we wise, versus systems that have grounded themselves as the status quo over the centuries. Micro movements in education and discussion within the design community would suggest that in the future a mind that is able to integrate different subject matter could be helpful. Renowned trend forecaster Li Edelkoort is introducing a department of Hybrid Design Studies to the Parson’s School of Design, New York claiming that the present system “seems to be obsolete” which builds on a conversation with Thomas Heatherwick who mentioned that he believes there is no difference in the process of designing a building as there is to a chair. “Whether something is a Christmas card or a masterplan for a site that's eight miles long, we've found it's exactly the same process that you're going through,” Heatherwick said to Dezeen. Perhaps then whether we choose to take the responsibility of being entirely self educated or are within an institution at a specialised course and eye on our future and the future would be wise.

Biomimetics, Beauty and Circularity

Gold Dust Women, Pamela Cocconi

In 2010, in the final year of my Chemistry degree at the University of Bristol, I studied the sea urchin spine, seeking to understand the nature of its crystalline properties and how this gave rise to a fracture resistance higher than that of traditional man made ceramics. This process is formally known as biomimicry. Biomimicry is defined as the activity of seeking sustainable solutions to human challenges through emulating nature's time - tested patterns and strategies. I didn’t contemplate the term again until I read The Medici Effect — Strategy and Innovation in an Unpredictable World in late 2011. In this book I encountered the work of architect Mick Pearce, who had mitigated the need for air conditioning in the construction of a Nairobi shopping mall by incorporating a cooling mechanism inspired by the structure of the termite mound. Mick, brought to my attention to the extensive but relatively unknown application of scientific principles to the craft of the designer, being quietly used by individuals like Thomas Heatherwick and Daan Roosegaarde. I even encountered ‘protocell architecture’ — the method of creating entire material systems from the bottom up that are both artificial and responsive.

“Biomimicry is defined as the activity of seeking sustainable solutions to human challenges through emulating nature’s time tested patterns and strategies.”

Photograph and Photographer Unknown

Nature makes a brilliant advisor for a variety of reasons. Firstly, it is has been around for long time and mastered the skill of adapting and evolving to optimise its chances of survival. The natural world is also locally attuned, resilient, responsive and runs in a cyclic process so there is no waste in nature. Natural systems, unlike man made systems are structured to optimise instead of maximise; to value interconnectedness and interdependence to the rest of the organisms in its surroundings; and the process of manufacturing in nature is predominantly benign.

To complement my reading self study, I completed an online course Biomimetic Design, intrigued by how science was being taught to design focussed minds. The course is based on a spiral made by designer Carl Hastrich, that takes an individual from a brief to creating to take their understanding of a particular biological phenomenon and translate it into making a product, service or system that aligns with natures principles.

Through breaking the barrier between science and art/ design we might find that each discipline helps us to ask better questions. 

— Natasha J. Hussein

An outline of Hastrich’s process involves, firstly identifying and understanding the basic functions that need to be performed by the design. It is a place where we reflect on what an object/ system needs to do and more interestingly, what it potentially could do. Secondly, we translate and interpret that in biological terms, asking the question of ‘how does nature perform a certain function?’ Thirdly, we undergo a journey of discovering the strategies used by nature including materials, shapes, processes and systems. Fourthly, to interpret biological strategies back into terminology relevant to the item that you are trying to design. Fifthly, to emulate and create an item based on what you trying to design. Finally, to assess the design in alignment to the original objectives.

Design has a large role in determining how we interact as a society, this includes our relationships with others, with the environment and with the objects in our lives. Through breaking the barrier between science and art/ design we might find that each discipline helps us to ask better questions. If the firefly is able to generate light without burning fossil fuels, how might we be able to achieve the same? Why are our homes constructed and heated the way that they are? What can the rainforest teach us about how to run organisations that operate more efficiently yet optimise the wellbeing of the individual? Why do paving stones have to be grey and ugly, can the abalone teach us to to make something beautiful and supportive? It is a popular belief that we have reached the age of ‘stuffocation’ but perhaps the solution to improving our collective quality of life is not in having less or making less, but in changing how we make existing objects, experiences and systems so that they might serve us more effectively.

Exploring the Influence of Language on Behaviour

Otokoyama Sake Brand Identity, Designer Unknown

Recent conversations have led me to acknowledge that I have unconsciously been attempting to work without ‘labelling’ and to close myself off to the noise that is outside to retrieve what might be inside. Beyond suspending labelling myself, which often makes introductory conversation a little bit more challenging, I have extended this lack of labelling to how I see. If we attempt to unlearn what we have learned cognitively about certain objects, processes and experiences how will that influence how we move, behave and create — will we see possibilities that were not there before?

Perhaps if we suspend what we ‘think’ about and object we can experience it anew.

Perhaps if we suspend what we ‘think’ about and object we can experience it anew. I think back to something I read a some time ago from designer Kenya Hara, on the concept of ‘Re-Design’ — the idea of looking “at familiar things as if it were our very first encounter with them. Re-design is a means by which to renew our feelings about the essence of design, hidden within the fascinating environment of an object that is so overly familiar to us that we can no longer see it.” I would encourage us to look beyond the word design (for that has its own conventional meanings also) and to think about existence itself from policy making, to software development, healthy eating to organising urban environments. How can we benefit from a fresh eye each day on the activities and the environments we create and play in?

I feel that great creative work is not just the responsibility of the ‘maker’, it is also the responsibility of the person that commissioned it. It is their responsibility to understand the difference between good, great and world class work. It is their responsibility to understand the cultural context in which they are asking this work to be created. And, at the very least, even if they do not know, it is their responsibility to ask the right questions to equip them with the knowledge that they need to make more impactful work along with a creative person they have hired. The reason why so much of environment looks the same and some of the reason individuals abandon creative careers is that in a lot of cases they are restricted by the vision (or lack of) of the client. It is time for us to shift the conversation from how can we do this on time and on budget to how can I get your best work out of you and you get your best work out of me/us? What does best work look like with the time frame and budget that we have? What are the social implications of the work that we are doing? How can we create impactful aesthetic and social impact?

Perhaps we should shift the conversation when we are working with a design team. There are several times that design professionals have told me ‘you can only ever be as creative as your client will allow’ or that ‘the work was never done in such a remarkable way, because the man with finance, said no.’ In addition, I came across a design magazine called FRAME, which is dedicated to visionary work by ‘the most visionary clients and the most visionary designers.’ Property Developer Ian Schrager has an entire monograph dedicated to his work because the man knew how to see. Perhaps it is all our responsibility to know what the role of aesthetic is not just for the person we are working with but as a society. Maybe the question is less about what can you do ‘on time’ and on ‘budget’ but what is the best that we can do together, that challenges and excites the person you are working with and how collectively one can help progress a particular field.

When positive impact and transformational change is packaged in a way that doesn’t move and inspire, we project particular projects as a ‘thing for certain kinds of people.’ None of us are immune to advertising and what is fashionable. What if green was glamorous? What if social development was beautiful? What if altruism was something that could both be stylish?